Introduction

Mitch Billis was a tenured mathematics professor at Montana State University when he began to paint watercolors as a hobby. During the summer of 1974, he attended a watercolor workshop given by Valfred Thelin, an artist from Maine. Within the first five minutes of watching him paint, he knew he was born to be an artist. As colors blended, shapes appeared and a painting created he was transformed, reminding him of a phrase used in his predominately Italian hometown to describe what happens to a man who falls in love with a woman upon seeing her for the first time — Colpo di fulmini, or "struck by lighting". A year and a half later he resigned, threw away his degrees and the reprints of the research he had done and began painting full-time.

A break with Clyde and Carol Aspivig in Venice.

After his children finished high school and returned to Montana, he returned to the west periodically to spend time with them and to paint for his western galleries. Along the way he became friends with Clyde Aspevig, a friendship that has endured. Painting and spending time with him were invaluable lessons on oil painting. Also, for three years in a row during the mid-80s he set aside a month each winter to visit art museums and study at the Art Students League in New York City. While there he was able to work with David Leffel, from whom he leaned about figures and still lifes. When he began to sell his work in the east he dropped out of his western galleries and most of the shows he had been in.

Painting the coast.

Bristol Bridge, ME 16x24

Christmas Poinsettias, ME 24x22

Becoming an artist requires a lot of help along the way. Watercolor was his first love. That week with Val Thelin and a resulting friendship was a great start. After he resigned, he was fortunate to begin studying with Don Stone, NA, in Rockport, MA, from whom he learned the basics of values and design, cornerstones of painting. He had begun to paint oils when he chose to take on the responsibility of single parenthood resulting in a move from Montana to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and postponing his oil painting for five years.

Coastal Winter, ME 24x30

County Mayo, Ireland 18x24

During the fall of 1987, he decided to paint the west coast beginning in Oregon and working his way south. He planned on spending the winter some place in California, but didn't get far. When the rains hit the Oregon coast, he headed south, stopping to paint in Ferndale, CA, not far from the Oregon border. He liked the town and decided to paint there for a week or so. He ended up staying for a year and marrying Kathleen, the woman who owned the B&B where he stayed. He is now fortunate to share both his love and life with a woman who is talented artist in her own right.

Brown Jug w. Red Onions and Garlic 20x30

I am still learning. That's the joy and frustration of painting. I am constantly experimenting and trying to improve the quality of my work. Sometimes a step back can mean two steps forward. Other times it's just a step back, but the inherent struggle always leads in new directions. As Robert Henri says in The Art Spirit, Painting is about the process, that's where the joy lies.
The paintings are merely a byproduct of the life I have been privileged to lead.

I am the world's worst record keeper and don't have photographs of most of the paintings I've done, especially my plein air work, of which I must have painted thousands. However, I do have enough to give you some idea of the work I have done over the years.
Titles and sizes are best estimates.